1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fusible link unit having a fuse circuit body integrally made of metal plate, and a housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a vehicle, various fusible link units are used for preventing an excessive current from being supplied to various electronic components mounted on the vehicle (for example, see Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2002-358870).
The fusible link unit includes a fuse circuit body having a coupling plate and a plurality of terminals connected to the coupled plate via fuse elements, and a housing receiving the fuse circuit body.
The coupled plate includes a plate part and a terminal piece curved at right angle and extended from one edge of the plate part. The coupled plate is formed in a U-shape from a side view. The terminal piece has a connecting part for connecting to electric source of a battery, a generator, or the like.
The fuse element is connected to the other edge of the plate part, and arranged in a same plane with the plate part. A plurality of fuse elements is arranged in parallel and leaves spaces between each other. A plurality of terminals is extended from the other side of the fuse elements, namely, extended from a far side of the coupled plate. The terminals are arranged in parallel and leave spaces between each other. The various electronic components are connected to the terminals. The housing is made of insulating synthetic resin, and formed in an oblong box shape.
The fusible link unit is assembled by receiving the fuse circuit body in the housing. Then, the electric source is connected to the coupling plate of the fuse circuit body, and the electronic components are connected to the terminals. Thus, the fusible link unit is mounted on a vehicle.
According to the above reference, the fusible link unit has a checking window made of transparent or semitransparent synthetic resin and formed on an outer wall of the housing. The fuse elements are arranged in the housing near the checking window so that blowouts of the fuse elements can be seen from an outside of the housing.
However, according to the fusible link unit described on the above reference, when the unit is disposed on a dark place disposed on a backside of an engine room or an instrument panel of a vehicle body, the window may not always be seen from a top of the window, or an inside of the checking window is too dark to see.
Further, when a plurality of the fuse circuit bodies are overlapped with each other in a direction crossing the checking window, the coupling plate disposed away from the checking window is hidden behind the fuse elements disposed near the checking window, so that the fuse elements disposed away from the checking window is hard to be seen. Thus, in the conventional fusible link unit described above, it is hard to check whether the fuse elements are blown out or not.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a fusible link unit that allows fuse elements to be seen easily.